


West of the Moon, East of the Sun

by Ravenclaw_Peredhel



Series: If I Should Fall [7]
Category: The Lord of the Rings (Movies), The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: F/M, Family Reunions, Gen, Happy Ending, Reunions, Sailing To Valinor, Undying Lands, Valinor, for once
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-14
Updated: 2021-01-14
Packaged: 2021-03-18 02:42:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28735911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ravenclaw_Peredhel/pseuds/Ravenclaw_Peredhel
Summary: The last Lady of the Exiles returns home, weary and war torn.
Relationships: Elrond Peredhel & Original Female Character(s), Maedhros | Maitimo/Maedhros | Maitimo's Wife, Maedhros | Maitimo/Original Female Character(s)
Series: If I Should Fall [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2023415
Comments: 10
Kudos: 18





	West of the Moon, East of the Sun

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Fantasticoncer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fantasticoncer/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Home at last](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28389852) by [Fantasticoncer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fantasticoncer/pseuds/Fantasticoncer). 



> Title from that song in ROTK

Samwise Gamgee, seven times over Mayor of the Shire, Hero of Middle-Earth stood waiting on the quay of the Grey Havens, a bent little figure, grey with age and full of years. Rosie was gone, so were Faramir, Eowyn, Eomer and a hundred other friends, all taken by the Gift over the last century. He was tired and old and weary, but he had promised to make this one last journey. All of his farewells were said and his gifts given, his promises fulfilled. All but one.

The sound of horsehoofs made him look up. Ah, there were his travelling companions, and those who came to see them off. Lord Celeborn dismounted easily, embracing his family fiercely, whispering farewells in their ears that would last until the Breaking of the World. Beside them, Lord Elrond assisted a hooded figure to dismount, who leaned on him wearily, as though completely spent.

The elf's hood fell off and Sam recognised Lady Merenel. At least he thought he did. He could hardly see the elf's features, so worn and lifeless were they. Merenel seemed close to floating off on the wind. Was this what an elf looked like when they were Fading, he wondered. She was practically transparent. 

"Elerondë, ionneg. Where are we?" Her soft voice seemed little more than a whisper on the wind. 

"At the Grey Havens Amil, remember?" Lord Elrond's voice was soft and resigned. "You are going home, to the Undying Lands."

"Oh yes...will, will you be alright penneth?" For all that she seemed deathly ill, she roused a little as this thought occurred to her. "You forget to eat so often, and Elerossë isn't there to drag you outside anymore...maybe I should wait a little."

"No Amil. You need to go." Lord Elrond's voice was firm, but Sam could see that it was breaking his heart to see his mother like this. It was bewildering enough for himself, who knew her only as a distant lady and legend out of times before the Sun and Moon. "You promised. "

"Oh alright then. If you're sure." The rest of the family, their goodbyes to Lord Celeborn obviously said, came up and held her in gentle hugs. Queen Arwen was crying, and Sam was fairly certain that Strider was as well. "Oh don't cry little ones. I'll be fine, don't you worry. Hush, don't cry, it will be alright." But she was crying herself, and her tears shone like diamonds.

Lord Celeborn eventually intervened, gently seperating his...Sam knew they were cousins of some sort...first cousins twice removed? from their family, and guiding her onto the ship. Lady Merenel clung to him as they moved out of the harbour, weeping as she waved goodbye to her family for possibly the last time. Sam went below decks, for he felt that he was intruding.

******************

Alassindë passed the voyage in a haze. She was so tired that she could barely move some days, and wasn't even entirely lucid half the time. When she was aware, she wept - for her husband, for her children, for her brothers, for her grandchildren, for her family. And she couldn't breathe for the guilt crushing her. Because she had left them again, and there was no going back. She had promised to look after them, and she had left. 

When they passed into the Straight Road, she felt it, with a clarity she had not possessed moment before. Wrapping herself in a cloak, she passed onto the deck. There, rushing below her, were the waters of her homeland. Clear and bright, all the way down to the sea floor. 

The voyage lasted maybe four days more. And then, the shining port of Alqualondë, sprawling along the coastline, came into view. It had been so long, so long, since she saw the city of her birth. Three Ages of the World she had been away, and she had lost everything. Now, she returned, the last of the Exiles, weakened and hollowed with grief, but alive. 

Closer and closer they came to the shining quays, quays that she had last seen bathed in crimson blood and torchlight. Littered with bodies broken and burned, elves that neither she nor Maedhros could save from the rampage of the Noldor. Now it shone beneath the sun, marvellously new and different in the light unmingled with silver. The shadows were different, no longer stretching stark and black across the sea. It was so strange. So familiar, and so different.

Then her eyes focused on the crowd waiting on the quay of the shining city. Noldor and Teleri alike stood there amicably. There! That was her father near the front, and her mother beside him. Her brother and sister stood there also, so unchanged, and yet so different.

She caught a glimpse of impossible height and dark red hair, and her heart stopped. Was that? No, surely not. He died, he died and he left her, and the doors of Mandos shut on him. She felt it, felt the severing of their bond as though her heart was being ripped out of her. 

The ship docked, the gangplank thudded to the quay, Celeborn leapt down to embrace his wife and daughter. But she stayed, still and motionless in the front of the ship, her hand gripping the wooden side so tightly that she feared letting go would cause her frail fingers to crumble into sparkling dust. 

"Lady Merenel? Are you alright?" The dependable, comfortable hobbit voice grounded her, steadied her. Sam had been a good friend over the course of the voyage. 

She mustered a weak smile. "I...I think so." It seemed to take as much effort to unpeel her fingers from the ships's side, to take that first step forwards, as it had to open her eyes and keep moving after his death. 

Then the first step was taken, and then another, and she was moving, and she was so scared. Because she had changed so much over the millennia, and what if her family? But they were moving as well, and now they were running, and so was she, and suddenly Olwë was holding his child in his arms for the first time since before the Two Trees were extinguished, and she was a Queen and a Lady and a Princess and a mother and a wife and a grandmother and a great-grandmother, but none of it mattered. Because her family was here, and it had been so long. Here was her mother, exclaiming over how thin and weak she was, here was her father, stern and dependable, here were her brother and sister, holding their baby sister in a tight embrace and weeping, and she was weeping too, and then...

Red-gold hair, and bright blue eyes. Black hair and white-grey eyes. Her small and slender and he tall and strong, and they were alive and beautiful. ''Ammë!" Because her children were there, and they were happy and perfect, and they were safe. And she held them against her, glorying in how strong and how perfect they were. Because they were her children, and then...

She couldn't breathe. Dark red curls pulled carelessly back. Taller than anyone else there, how did she not see him before? White-grey eyes looking anxiously at her. And two hands...two hands, and he was well and he was alive, and she wanted to strangle him and kiss him at the same time, and she flew at him with a cry, and she never knew which she intended, because he caught her and kissed her, and they were crying, and he was sudddenly there, and the scar on her fëa was replaced with him. And he was strong and warm and he was alive, and the scars that he had carried were gone, and both of his hands were tangled in her hair, and it had been so long and she had missed him so much. 

*******************

Sam wasn't quite forgotten, but he was happy just to watch the elves from his vantage point with Mr Frodo and Mr Bilbo, who certainly knew a lot about these elves. 

The elf hugging her, that one with the silver hair, that was her father King Olwë, yes of this city. Yes, Frodo assured him, it was that Olwë who had been in Mr Bilbo's stories about the Jewels and the Ships. And that was his Queen, Queen Sindiel. And no, he couldn't call Lady Merenel that anymore, because that was a Sindarin name, and until she expressed a preference for it, she was Princess Alassindë. And that was Queen Eärwen of Tírion, her older city...yes, the mother of Lady Galadriel, and King Finrod of the Caves. Next to them, that was their brother, Prince Vinyáro. Yes, she was much younger than her siblings.

Then she flew at two other elves, and Sam was quite overwhelmed, because the elves here were all acting quite mad. Almost like hobbits, smiling and laughing and crying and hugging, and they weren't grave and terrible as they were in Middle Earth. He supposed it was because they were safe here. Frodo nudged him, and pointed to the two elves. The female elf was Lady Morwen, only here she was Princess Laurealasse, yes the one who had been born on the ice and yes it was that Lady Morwen who had been the warrior princess of Himring. That was her brother, King Gil-galad, and no he was Prince Tintillion here, yes it was King Gil-galad from the song. Yes, she was their mother, didn't he know. 

Then another elf moved forward, and the crowd parted, and there was a tense feeling of anticipation in the air and Frodo whispered that that was Lord Maedhros, Prince Maitimo, the One-Handed, who had forged the Union of Maedhros and led the Nirnaeth, the legendary elven-lord. Lady Merenel flew at him, and Sam wasn't sure if she was going to kiss him or strangle him, and he had never seen the elven-lady so wild before, and apparently he was her husband, and wasn't that a bit of news, and then they were kissing, and all the elves were clapping and cheering, and he was quite bewildered. Mr. Frodo told him that that was quite alright Sam, the Undying Lands were always a bit puzzling at the start.

_~Oh great glory and splendour! And all my wishes have come true!~ Samwise Gamgee, the Field of Cormallen, Return of the King,_

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea how elves Fading works so...
> 
> Also, a sneak peak into my weird-ass brain, you're welcome.
> 
> Read and review 😁


End file.
